New Delhi: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said security forces should deal with right-wing terror
groups "sternly and fearlessly" as they were enemies of the
country as much as Indian Mujahideen and SIMI.

"...the right wing extremist terrorist groups. That also
deserves to be researched and studied. They are radicalising
right wing youths in the same manner that SIMI and IM have
been radicalised," Chidambaram said while releasing a book
"Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within" written by journalist
Shishir Gupta.

The Home Minister, who was flanked by BJP Leader of the
Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley at the book launch,
said "so actually, we do not have one enemy within today, we
have two enemies within and hope there will not be a third or
a fourth or fifth.
"While the security establishment must treat it as a
security issue, must build capacity, must improve its
intelligence-gathering capacity and must deal with these
groups fearlessly and sternly, the rest of us, who are now
popularly called civil society, must deal with the causes of
provocation which gives rise to enemies within."

Chidambaram said this could not be ignored "because if
these causes, if these provocations or if these reasons remain
and if they continue to motivate and inspire one enemy within
or the other enemy within every year, younger men join the
ranks of these enemies, whatever capacity we build in the
security establishments would be inadequate to deal with the
rising ranks of enemies.
The Home Minister said civil society owes an obligation
that to address the reasons which give rise to young men
getting radicalised.

Chidambaram said the internet was being used to
radicalise youths.

"That`s because of mobility, the use of
communication. The use of travel above all this is a
completely new phenomenon. Radicalisation no longer takes
place face to face.

"Most terrorists today are radicalised through internet.
There are any number of recent examples where a terrorist has
been radicalised through the internet," he said.

The Home Minister said "we are living in a very complex
world where the enemy is not identified or an identifiable
organisation.

"Sometimes, it is like al Qaeda, like the Taliban, like
Indian Mujahideen. There could be individuals who are simply
radicalised and converted and we have to build capacity to
deal with this kind of challenge," Chidambaram said.

In his opening remarks, Jaitley stressed on the need for
political will and effective mechanism to deal with the
challenges posed by several enemy groups acting outside and
within the country.

Chidambaram agreed with Jaitley saying "while many of us
in the establishment have a fair understanding of the gravity
of the challenge, we are still not able to whip the machinery
into responding quickly to build the capacity that is required
to meet the challenge".

Gupta`s book is an attempt to link up all jihadi groups
working across the country and to trace their linkages with
terrorists based in countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen and Saudi
Arabia.